We have just lost our fourth player in the last ten minutes, getting us to our unofficial final table. The unfortunate player who busted in 10th was Roman Verenko. Action started with George Fotiadis raising it up on the button, and it folded to Verenko, who had nearly half his stack in the middle in the big blind. Verenko looked at his cards one at a time, and shook his head each time for the first three cards. However, when he saw the fourth, he simply gave a shrug and a small grin, and stuck the rest of it in the middle.
Verenko:
Fotiadis:
The board ran down , and Fotiadis had two pair for the high, and barely edged out Verenko for the low. Fotiadis has been on a tear in this level, as he is now up to 395,000. With that elimination, we have reached our final nine players!
The action are coming fast here, as we have also lost another two more players in 11th and 10th place. Owais Ahmed filled us in on how we lost Alexander Lakhov busted in 11th. According to him, all the money got in on third when the betting was capped. Lakhov ended up making eights and fours by the end, but it was no good, as Gorodinky had aces and deuces. After that pot, Gorodinsky is back up to our chip lead with nearly 600,000.
Daniel Negreanu's run has come to an end in 12th place, following a bad river card that sent him out the door.
Action folded to Negreanu in the small blind, and he raised. Mike Gorodinsky called from the big blind, and the flop came down . Negreanu bet, and Gorodinsky made the call.
The turn was the , and Negreanu bet all in. Gorodinsky made the call with the . Negreanu was ahead with the .
The river was a dirty one, as the dealer spiked the on the end of the board to give Gorodinsky the winning hand. He won the pot to eliminate Negreanu and move to 490,000 in chips.
We were catching an all in at the other table, and miss Randall Pace's elimination, but Kristopher Tong was kind enough to give us the details. According to him, the board read , and George Fotiadis held in his hand for two pair. Pace could only muster up a and for a lesser two pair, and he was eliminated. Meanwhile Fotiadis has rocketed up to 330,000.
On the flop, Daniel Negreanu, Mike Gorodinsky and George Danzer each put in four bets before the landed on the turn. All three players checked, then the dealer added the on the river. After Negreanu and Gorodinsky checked, Danzer bet. Negreanu folded, as did Gorodinsky, and Danzer won the pot.
Danzer showed the , and Negreanu claimed he folded half the pot, saying that he also had ace-five.
Action folded to George Fotiadis on the button, and he raised. Dustin Leary called from the small blind, and Roman Verenko reraised from the big blind. Fotiadis made it four bets to go, Leary called, and Verenko called.
The flop came down , and action checked to Fotiadis. He bet, and only Leary called.
The turn was the , and both players checked to see the land on the river. After Leary checked, Fotiadis bet, and Leary folded.
Owais Ahmed has been absolutely on fire all day, and that hasn't slowed down in this level. We caught the tail end of him scooping a monster pot through Mike Gorodinsky to push him over 500,000. The board had been dealt out , and when we arrived, we saw Gorodinsky tanking over a river bet by Ahmed. There was a sea of chips in the middle, and after a good time of thought, Gorodinsky reluctantly called.
Ahmed tabled for two pair and the nut low, and Gorodinsky shook his head before mucking his hand. After that pot, Gorodinsky is down to 470,000, while Ahmed is our leader with 520,000.
Mike Matusow was hoping for his fourth WSOP bracelet today, but he will have to wait another day, as he was just eliminated in a cooler stud-8 hand. We caught the action on fifth street, where we saw Matusow bet out, and get called by George Danzer and Owais Ahmed. On sixth, Danzer bet, and Matusow called. Ahmed put in two bets, and Danzer didn't take long to put a third bet out there. Matusow and Ahmed called, and Dazner bet one more time on seventh street. Matusow called off the last of his 11,000, and Ahmed also tagged along.
Danzer showed in the hole for an eight high straight and low, and Matusow showed for a seven high straight and low. However, Owais announced he had a "seventy five" low, and showed the in the hole. Matusow made his hand on seventh, but amazingly, it wasn't good enough. He bows out just short of the final table.
Mike Gorodinsky raised from early position, and Alexander Lakhov made the call from the small blind. Daniel Negreanu called from the big blind, and the flop came down . After checks from Lakhov and Negreanu, Gorodinsky fired a bet and won the pot.